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Dumb newby question.
car is a stock European 2000 325Ci.
One of my two remote keys has a flat battery.
I've used it a few times in the ignition to charge it up, but to no avail.
I guess it just hasn't had a long enough journey, but how long would it normally take to restore a functional charge ?
[The key's been flat since we bought the car 18 months ago and I suppose I ought to find out whether it's just flat or is faulty. having just one functional key is obviously asking for trouble ;^) ]

Thanks guys,
It is the later key which charges from the ignition. I'm just not sure how long it should take !
If I don't have any luck with any of your excellent advice, I'll pop it along to my dealer, along with the working key, and let him re-set it.

Dont' know the answer, but I'm in the same boat - I bought my car 3 weeks ago and one of the keys is flat. I drove with it for a week hoping to get it charged up, but no dice. It's supposed to only take a couple of hours. After that, try reprogramming it.

I read the actual charging time in the maual a while back. If I recall, it said something like "use each key in the ignition at least once a year for 30 minutes." The verbiage is probably off, but that's about the gist of it. I'm sure it's entirely possible that early batteries on the keys weren't spectacular, and can permanently die. Or, as epbrown suggests, it has lost memory to your car, and won't work no matter how much juice the battery has.